Maria Doughty: As the CEO of The Chicago Network, the premier organization of Chicagoland’s most influential women leaders, Maria Doughty leads with deep personal purpose. She is an ambassador for the organization and its purpose of empowering women to lead, and its mission to connect women for personal and professional growth, advance communities, and support and inspire the next generation of women. She previously served as the Director of Public Policy and Regulatory Examinations for Allstate Insurance Company. Maria brings significant industry experience in highly regulated areas, including insurance and financial services. She is a skilled regulatory compliance, governance, enterprise risk management, litigation, public policy, and government affairs strategist.

Robert Keehn joined UBS Asset Management in January 2023 as an SI Analyst. Robert is primarily responsible for proxy voting and related engagements for the US markets. He covers a wide range of sustainability topics, ensuring effective integration of governance and sustainability factors into investment and voting decisions.
Robert joined UBS from AllianceBernstein where he served as a Proxy and ESG Engagement Associate, with responsibilities including proxy voting decisions, engagement with equity holdings, reporting and research on various ESG topics. Prior to this he worked for EY, where he was a Senior Consultant specializing in transformation projects at Wealth and Asset Management companies.

Cassie Saitow is Associate Director of Investor Relations at Blueprint Medicines, and also leads ESG strategy and reporting. With a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology, she brings a science lens to IR strategy. Prior to her current role, she held positions in Investor Relations at PTC Therapeutics, and as an Associate Professor at Simmons University.

Christina Sivulka is a Global Sustainability Manager at EnerSys. Over the course of her career, Christina has worked to drive impactful CSR, sustainability, ESG, and philanthropic initiatives. At EnerSys, a leading industrial and battery manufacturing company, Christina spearheads efforts to enhance energy efficiency and environmental responsibility – including the execution of the company’s environmental data collection, sustainability reports, communications and more. Prior to her role at EnerSys, Christina completed her masters in Environmental Policy in at George Washington University while working as a Project Manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Marina Severinovsky is the Head of Sustainability, North America, and leads the sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration for Schroders investments in North America. She collaborates with senior managers on market strategy, client communications, product development, sales, and investor management.

Marina was previously the Investment Director for North America for the Quantitative Equity Products (QEP) team from 2020 and was responsible for communicating QEP’s investment policy and strategy with clients, as well as business management in the Americas.

Prior to joining the QEP team, Marina was an Investment Strategist from 2016 to 2019, working in partnership with Hartford Funds to represent Schroders strategies to financial advisors and intermediaries across all client channels, primarily in the Central US region.

Marina was an Alternatives Specialist at Schroders from 2010 to 2016, which involved supporting the development of Schroders’ Alternatives business in the Americas. Her product management activities covered multiple strategies, including Commodities, Absolute Return Emerging Market Debt and Insurance Linked Securities.

Marina joined Schroders in 2010 and is based in New York. Prior to joining Schroders, she was an Associate in Investment Banking at Citi Capital Markets and Banking from 2008 to 2010, which involved supporting buy- and sell-side mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt transactions, and fairness opinions for a broad range of corporate clients in the Healthcare and Tech, Media & Telecom coverage groups. She was a Consultant and Client Relationship Manager at Digital Mandate, LLC from 2005 to 2007, which involved providing legal technology, process consulting, and technology optimization solutions to large law firms and corporate legal departments. She was an Analyst at Chicago Partners, LLC from 2004 to 2005, which involved finance, economics and accounting consulting, in the context of litigation and regulatory review activities.

Marina brings 18 years of professional experience to her role at Schroders, including economic analysis, research, and financial modeling, as well as product development, strategy, and client relationship management. She is conversationally fluent in Russian.

Dr. Bruce Kahn is the lead Portfolio Manager of the Shelton Sustainable Equity Fund. Previously, Bruce was responsible for delivering technical advice to investors on MSCI’s ESG and Climate Solutions tools and data sets for investment decision making, risk management, reporting and engagement. His previous 18 years of work experience included portfolio management and other responsibilities at firms such as Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Global Inc., and Sustainable Insight Capital Management. Dr. Kahn earned a PhD in Land Resources from University of Wisconsin, Madison, an MS in Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures from Auburn University, and a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut. Bruce served as an Agriculture Extension Agent in the United States Peace Corps in the Republic of Cameroon, (1989-1993), as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel from 1999-2001 and has been teaching courses in Sustainable Finance, Statistics and Agriculture as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute since 2012.

Mr. Phillips is Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Constellation Energy. Constellation is the nation’s largest producer of carbon-free energy and leading supplier of sustainable solutions to millions of residential, public sector and business customers.
Mr. Phillips has advised boards and senior management on various topics, including risk oversight; fiduciary duties; board succession; executive compensation; SEC disclosures; and shareholder activism.
Mr. Phillips is past chair of the Corporate and Securities Law Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel and formerly served on the board of directors of the Society for Corporate Governance.
In December 2021, Mr. Phillips obtained his National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Directorship Certification™. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Duke University School of Law.

Jake Crooks is currently a Senior Manager, ESG Lead at Booking Holdings, part of his responsibilities is being tasked with establishing top-tier ESG reporting standards for compliance with evolving legislation. Additionally, Jake is charged with managing key stakeholder relationships, addressing inquiries from ESG investors and rating agencies, and implementing ESG strategies across Booking Holdings brands. Contributing to the Booking Holdings Steering Committee, Jake plays a pivotal role in driving corporate ESG strategy, promoting cross-functional collaboration to achieve ambitious ESG objectives, and meticulously monitoring performance against KPIs and commitments.

Before his tenure at Booking Holdings, Jake held the position of Senior Manager of Investor Relations and ESG Engagement at First Republic Bank.

Laura Avant has over a decade of expertise in the energy sector and currently serves as the Director of Sustainability Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement at NRG Energy. Here, she is responsible for the development and execution of NRG’s comprehensive sustainability strategy. She regularly engages with key internal and external stakeholders to understand their needs and share NRG’s approach. Additionally, Laura oversees ESG investor engagement, corporate disclosure practices, and the harmonization of reporting across various frameworks.

Before joining the corporate sustainability team, Laura was the Director of Corporate Communications for NRG. In this capacity, she managed a diverse communications portfolio encompassing corporate reputation and issues management, executive thought leadership, financial affairs, government and regulatory interactions, and sustainability initiatives. Prior to NRG, she worked in the chemicals and oil and gas industries. Laura holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University.

Natalie Runyon has more than 20 years of experience working for multinational organizations, including Thomson Reuters, Goldman Sachs, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Currently, she is the ESG strategist for the Thomson Reuters Institute and helps TR execute the company’s internal ESG strategy. Before her current role she focused on inclusion and culture topics for the legal industry for TR Institute and ran the strategy and operations team, supporting key account programs within the Legal business; and before that, she ran global security in the Americas for three years.

She has published more than 300 articles for the Thomson Reuters institute across talent, culture, inclusion, and ESG topics over the last 5 years. Her content can be found on tr.com/institute.

Shanu Mathew is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager/Analyst on the US Sustainable Equity fund. He also serves as a research analyst on the US Equity team, focusing on companies’ sustainability and net zero efforts. He began working in the investment field in 2015. Prior to joining Lazard in 2021, Shanu was a Vice President and Head of ESG at First Eagle Alternative Credit. He has also worked at Expanse and started his career in investment banking at Evercore. Shanu has a BS in both Accounting and Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a member of the Investment Committee of Evergreen Climate Innovations, which provides capital and support to early-stage startups focused on climate solutions. Shanu has also been recurring guest on Wood Mackenzie’s ‘The Energy Gang’ podcast and was named a Notable Leader in Sustainability by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2024.

Martha was appointed as the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of CONSOL Energy in 2017, in connection with the spin-off of CEIX. Martha is also the company’s chief compliance officer, and oversees the Land, Internal Audit and Legal functions of the company. She additionally serves as a member of the company’s Risk Management Committee, Investment Plan Committee and Retirement Plan Board.

Previously, she served as general counsel and a board member of CONSOL Coal Resources LP (formerly traded on NYSE as CCR), a master limited partnership. She was the lead in house attorney handling the initial IPO of CCR, its financing arrangements, and its subsequent go-private and take-in. She also has significant experience on other large M&A and financing transactions while in house, as well as experience managing environmental & sustainability, and cybersecurity matters, since 2008.

Prior to these roles, Martha spent about 10 years working in large law firms, where she was a member of the Financial Institutions, Corporate Finance and Bankruptcy/ Workout groups and handled a wide variety of legal matters for companies and lenders in various stages of growth and development. While with the firms, Martha served on the Recruiting Committee and led the Summer Associate program.

Martha earned her A.B. in economics from Cornell University and her J.D. in law from Duquesne University, cum laude. She has been a member of the board of trustees of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation since 2018, is a past President and Board Chair of the Junior League of Pittsburgh, served on the Creditors’ Committee in the Westmoreland Coal bankruptcy and has been a member of the America’s Power Policy & Strategy Committee since 2018, where she has also served as Vice Chair and Chair. She regularly speaks on legal and governance topics in CLE courses and other forums.

Sara Dal Lago, Vice President, Sustainability, KKR
Sara Dal Lago joined global investment firm KKR in 2021. She leads KKR’s public-facing sustainability disclosure efforts, engages with key stakeholders to understand their sustainability information needs, and helps define and communicate KKR’s sustainability approach to both external and internal audiences, including shareholders, ESG rating agencies, fund investors, portfolio companies, and employees. Prior to KKR, she was a member of Edelman’s Social Impact & Sustainability advisory practice, where she helped develop tailored sustainability strategies and disclosures for the firm’s clients. Sara’s expertise marries technical understanding of reporting frameworks and standards with a communications background and ability to convey complex topics to various audiences. She is a GRI Certified Sustainability Professional and FSA Credential Level II Candidate, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Relations & Corporate Communications from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Interlinguistic Communications from Universita degli Studi di Trieste, Italy.

BIO

Emmanuelle is Managing Director, Head of Sustainability Advisory at Alliance Advisors, where she leads the firm’s sustainability solutions. Emmanuelle is a senior ESG leader with a track record of partnering with executive leadership and boards of global companies to successfully develop and execute on environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure, strategies, and performance goals. Emmanuelle is highly experienced at engaging with corporate issuers across all sectors on ESG materiality, ratings, and global framework alignment (SASB, TCFD, GRI, etc.) to manage changing investor expectations.

Prior to joining Alliance, Emmanuelle was a Group Manager on the Sustainability Advisory team at ISS Corporate Solutions (ICS), where she led a team of specialized ESG advisors and was instrumental in the growth of ICS’ client base and service offering. Emmanuelle has also worked closely with institutional investors to advance ESG engagements through previous roles on the climate team at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and on the carbon asset risk team at Ceres.

Emmanuelle is a SASB FSA credential holder, is pursuing a certificate in Financing and Deploying Clean Energy from the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and holds an M.S. in Sustainability Management from American University’s Kogod School of Business.

Hatsuki serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Balchem Corporation (Nasdaq: BCPC), a $5B market cap, global health and nutrients company. She leads the Legal, Regulatory and Compliance functions at Balchem, serves on the ESG executive steering committee, works closely with the Board of Directors, and provides strategic advice and legal counsel to the Chairman, President and CEO and senior management on various matters ranging from corporate governance, M&A, environmental, securities, regulatory, litigation, insurance, enterprise risk management, compliance, investor relations, and Tax/Treasury. Prior to joining Balchem, Hatsuki served as Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Allegion plc (NYSE: ALLE), a S&P 500 global company in the safety and access solutions industry. She also served as Principal of Allegion Ventures. Prior to Allegion, Hatsuki honed her
international business skills and expertise in-house at The Procter & Gamble Company. Hatsuki has an M.B.A. with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and an LL.M. from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Law and Politics. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and is NACD Directorship Certified®.

Mr. Taylor is the Vice President, Chief SEC Counsel and Secretary of American Water Works Company, Inc., where he is responsible for American Water’s securities law, corporate governance and corporate law compliance, and leads the corporate secretary function. At American Water, Mr. Taylor serves as a trusted advisor to the Board of Directors and the executive leadership team, and as a legal and strategic business partner to the company’s accounting, communications, human resources and executive compensation, finance, investor relations and treasury functions. Throughout his nearly three-decade career, including 13 years within the in-house corporate secretary function, Mr. Taylor has advised clients in various securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital raising, corporate governance, executive compensation and business and corporate law matters.

Mr. Taylor is a frequent speaker, presenter and panelist covering topics pertinent to securities and corporate governance professionals. Mr. Taylor has been an active member of the Society for Corporate Governance since 2002 and is currently completing a four-year term as a member of its Board of Directors, including three years serving as Chair of its Audit and Finance Committee. Mr. Taylor received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Northwestern University and his Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Mr. Taylor is a member of the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania bars, and holds a limited license to practice as in-house counsel in New Jersey.

Laurice Arroyo is the General Counsel, Chief Litigation, Employment, Privacy and Cybersecurity Counsel at National Grid, one of the largest investor-owned utilities and renewable energy companies in the world. She has over 20 years of experience in complex litigation matters, leading large teams of attorneys and other professionals in the oversight of multi-million-dollar budgets and resolution of billions in disputes. In her current role, she supervises a group of approximately twenty-five lawyers who are responsible for litigation, internal and government investigations, employment and labor, real estate, privacy and cybersecurity at National Grid.

Prior to joining National Grid, Laurice served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where she prosecuted and tried criminal cases for the federal government. She started her career as a trial lawyer at Sidley & Austin and clerked for a federal judge.

Laurice has extensive volunteer board experience. She currently serves on the New York City Workforce Development Board after being appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2012. She joined the Executive Committee in 2014, was elected as Chair in 2016, and served as Chair until 2020. In her current role as an Executive Committee member, Laurice is responsible for reviewing the programmatic and fiscal performance of an approximately $100 million annual budget for adult and youth jobs programs, as well as new policies proposed by the Department of Small Business Services and the Department of Youth and Community Development. Laurice led the effort at National Grid to hire summer interns through the City’s “Ladders for Leaders” program and actively participated in the Youth Internship Workgroup on the Board. Laurice also serves as a Trustee for the Keewaydin Foundation and is a member of the Executive Committee. Keewaydin is a nearly 100-year-old summer camp with locations in Vermont and Quebec, where children enjoy their summer outside without electronics, while learning independence and the value of teamwork through canoe and wilderness hiking trips in the Northeast and eastern Canadian provinces.

Laurice earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan with honors and a degree Business Administration also from the University of Michigan.

Sabina Kaplan possesses over 15 years of expertise spanning ESG, investor relations, corporate finance, equity research, and equity sales. Currently, she holds the position of Senior Director of ESG and Investor Relations at IAC. In this capacity, she leads ESG reporting, compliance, and strategy. IAC is the parent company of digital consumer brands such as Angi, Dotdash Meredith, and Care.com.

Within her role, Sabina is responsible for developing and implementing ESG strategies, ensuring regulatory compliance, and overseeing ESG reporting. She spearheads an internal committee tasked with addressing evolving regulatory reporting requirements, such as those mandated by CSRD, California, and SEC regulations. Additionally, she supervises the publication of IAC’s annual ESG report, ensuring alignment with reporting frameworks and promoting transparency through engagement with ESG rating agencies and the company’s ESG website.

Prior to her tenure at IAC, Sabina held various finance positions. Notably, she served as a research analyst at Guggenheim Partners and Levitt Capital, where she covered the telecommunications, cable, and satellite sectors.

Allison Justice is the Director of Investor Relations for Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (NYSE: WMS). In her current role, she oversees earnings, investor materials and communications and shareholder outreach, working closely with corporate strategy and sustainability. Since joining ADS in October 2016, Allison has played an integral role in developing the Company’s ESG strategy and communications, creating a program from the ground up. Prior to ADS, Allison worked at Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (NYSE: TPX) in Global Financial Reporting. Allison holds a B.S. in Accounting from The University of Kentucky and is also a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Keri P. Mattox was appointed Senior Vice President, Chief Communications and Administration Officer in May 2022, responsible for strategically integrating, aligning and driving investor relations, communications and philanthropy functions and activities, as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. She joined Zimmer Biomet in January 2020 as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Chief Communications Officer.

Prior to joining Zimmer Biomet, Ms. Mattox served as Global Lead, Integrated Corporate Communications at W2O Group (now Real Chemistry), an international healthcare-focused marketing and communications firm. There she was responsible for strategically shaping and expanding the firm’s global corporate communications, investor relations, crisis communications, M&A, board engagement and corporate social responsibility/foundation capabilities and offering.
Prior to W2O, Ms. Mattox was Vice President, Corporate & Investor Relations at AmerisourceBergen, a healthcare company ranked #10 on the Fortune 500. She also held executive leadership team level positions at Endo International and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals and spent more than 10 years at communications agencies in leadership positions. Earlier in her career, Ms. Mattox was a reporter with Hearst Newspapers. She holds a B.A. from Boston University and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland.

Daniel Labovitz is the Chief Executive Officer of Green Impact Exchange, LLC, a national securities exchange (pending regulatory approval) focused on sustainability and will serve as the nexus for green-minded investors, stakeholders, and companies. Dan was the former head of regulatory policy at the NYSE and holds a JD from New York University School of Law.

Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large for Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance issues affecting broker-dealers and asset management firms in the US and Europe. Before that, he was editor of Euromoney Institutional Investor’s International Financial Law Review and IFLR’s Americas editor, working in London and New York.

Steve Wade is a content researcher and conference producer at IR Magazine where he is responsible for crowd-sourcing intelligence on the big global issues facing investor relations. Steve also creates events where the IROs and the wider financial community can discuss, debate and learn about ways to develop the IR function.

Prior to IR Magazine, Steven’s background has been in corporate social responsibility and responsible investment. During his time at Ethical Corporation (now Reuters Events), Steve launched the ESG symposium, an event focused on connecting the socially responsible investment community with corporate sustainability leaders at listed companies. Steve was a judge for the Deloitte Green Frog Awards, celebrating the best corporate reporting in Eastern Europe. Steve also presented research at the Global Sustainable Event Summit in London and has spoken about extra-financial reporting with the United Nations Global Compact, the World Bank and the Polish Ministry of Finance.

Steve has a degree in Event Management and enjoys playing rugby in his spare time.